insane mistake by bank advice needed

musing

hi looking for advise my mum and I have the same name and for a time th3 same address it looks like she has been paying my credit card for the last 5 years. this has only come to light now as she was applying for a mortgage.. obviously the bank should reimburse her the money but where do I stand

kona

musing wrote: »

hi looking for advise my mum and I have the same name and for a time th3 same address it looks like she has been paying my credit card for the last 5 years. this has only come to light now as she was applying for a mortgage.. obviously the bank should reimburse her the money but where do I stand

could you possibly have inadvertantley swapped cards?

vandriver

Have you been paying hers?

tatli_lokma

musing wrote: »

obviously the bank should reimburse her the money but where do I stand

Not obvious to me that the bank should reimburse. The mistake was your mum's, not theirs. Did she not look at the transactions and check they were actually ones she made? Do people really not read their credit card statements? No wonder credit card fraud is so lucrative!

musing

well called national consumer agency and they say of course the bank is liable to cover her.. no mix up she has no cc at all.. there was some link thing that banks used between banks and wrong bank details were used

MagicMarker

Obviously the bank is at fault here, but ffs how have you not noticed this until now?

MagicMarker

musing wrote: »

well called national consumer agency and they say of course the bank is liable to cover her.. no mix up she has no cc at all.. there was some link thing that banks used between banks and wrong bank details were used

You realise that whatever they credit her will be debited back to your credit card? As you never paid it.

joeguevara

If the bank is liable for reimbursing her, would they not come after you for unpaid credit card bills. I doubt they will be at a loss.

musing

I had called after it was set up and said it didnt look like it was going out of my account and they just confirmed it was to be honesthave loads of dd as bill payer and just assumed it must be

The_Valeyard

Yeah....who is going to settle the account then?

I take it OP you will pay it back in monthly installments or something? (after 5 years, could be some amount!)

Tails142

This thread....

OP have you both been paying the bill or just your mom?

How did your mom not notice she was paying sometime else's credit card?

And if you have been paying surely that money she was paying was being credited into your account too?

How did this go on 5 years without either of you noticing?

Just to be clear... Was it being paid by direct debit?
How did you not notice someone else was paying your credit card? That's the bit that's insane!

Tails142

musing wrote: »

I had called after it was set up and said it didnt look like it was going out of my account and they just confirmed it was to be honesthave loads of dd as bill payer and just assumed it must be

Would it not be just easier to give your mom the cash now and write it off as an embarrassing mix up you both should have noticed.

The_Valeyard

Tails142 wrote: »

Would it not be just easier to give your mom the cash now and write it off as an embarrassing mix up you both should have noticed.

Makes sense...just pay your mother back. And buy her flowers or chocolates.

Skid X

If the bank are forced to refund the money to your Mother, they will most likely come straight after you for the balance.

There has to be some personal responsibility here - She never checked her statements and you must have known something was wrong?

amber2

Bank statements are issued for a reason I don't think a regulator will take your defence of neither myself or my mother noticed these transactions over a 5 year period. I would get your mother to request a copy of the direct debit mandate for signature verification purposes or perhaps it was set up over the phone. I do agree that you both have some degree of personal responsibility but equally the bank should have verified signatures if they hold a signed mandate.

There may be a mistake made by the bank but the insane part is that you ran up a credit card bill which you say you didn't realise you weren't paying even though you received a monthly statement & your mother was paying it for five years... I'd notice €20 going out of my account.

amdublin

While your mother was paying, I assume you were actually getting the visa statements?

Did you not see lodgements/payments which were not made by you?

kleefarr

joeguevara wrote: »

If the bank is liable for reimbursing her, would they not come after you for unpaid credit card bills. I doubt they will be at a loss.

Exactly. There is no way they would reimburse his mother and not then reclaim the costs from where it was first due.

nlgbbbblth

Surely you filled up a direct debit mandate with your account number on it?

When applying for a credit card you can pick the direct debit option on the form. But the account number needs to be filled in.

Either way it should have been noticed by you or your mother long before now. I'm getting a vibe of "someone else's fault".

You might need to take some personal responsibility pills.

GerardKeating

musing wrote: »

hi looking for advise my mum and I have the same name and for a time th3 same address it looks like she has been paying my credit card for the last 5 years. this has only come to light now as she was applying for a mortgage.. obviously the bank should reimburse her the money but where do I stand

How is this even the "Banks" mistake?

Your mother presented a bill in "her name" and paid it.

The only person whom should reimburse your mother is YOU.

ILikeFriday

I'd be interested to know the outcome of this one to be honest. All the comments advising to take personal responsibility surprise me. Obviously it is sensible to check your statements, but that doesn't mean it's your responsibility to ensure the bank do their job properly. The mistake was primarily theirs.

I wonder if peoples views are influenced by the fact that the two people here are related. If I was paying some randomers credit card for five years, I would expect an extremely apologetic bank regardless of the fact that I hadn't checked my statement. They should do their job properly, without me policing them. Equally, lets say I was under the impression my credit card was being paid for the last 5 years because the bank had undertaken to direct debit and it turned out it wasn't but I didn't notice, if I was hit with a bill I couldn't afford, I would be extremely annoyed.

I would like to know legally who is right and wrong, because they were notifying the OP on a monthly/quarterly basis of what they were doing.

Atlantic Dawn

GerardKeating wrote: »

How is this even the "Banks" mistake?

Your mother presented a bill in "her name" and paid it.

The only person whom should reimburse your mother is YOU.

Exactly.

The statement will also say the type of card, number and limit which will not be the same even if the name is.

nlgbbbblth

ILikeFriday wrote: »

Obviously it is sensible to check your statements, but that doesn't mean it's your responsibility to ensure the bank do their job properly. The mistake was primarily theirs.

How do you know?

ILikeFriday

My guess, and this is just from a customer service point of view, not a legal one, is that if the OP and OP's mother approached the bank, the bank would be very apologetic to the mother and reimburse her. Then they would want the money from the OP, which the OP might be given a period of time to pay. It would seem unfair to demand a very large amount upfront if it was the banks mistake.

ILikeFriday

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

How do you know?

Well, presumably the mother didn't instruct the bank to take the money from her account, if she knew nothing about it. If they took money from her account without her approval, that is a serious issue.

NinjaTruncs

Sorry but there is not a hope in hell you haven't realised you weren't paying your CC bill for five years. I'd expect it went like this. You queried it, they said everything was set up OK you then continued to notice you weren't paying the bill but said nothing.

Either way as others have said if the bank repays your mother, which the probably do if she didn't authorise the payments, they are going to expect you to pay your bill. I would be shocked if they repaid your mother and didn't expect you to repay what is owed.

ILikeFriday

You say this came to light when you mother was applying for a mortgage OP. In light of that maybe it would be wise correct this with the bank, rather than you just reimbursing your mother privately, if it could potentially have an adverse affect on her application or any future applications. I don't know the circumstances.

nlgbbbblth

ILikeFriday wrote: »

Well, presumably the mother didn't instruct the bank to take the money from her account, if she knew nothing about it. If they took money from her account without her approval, that is a serious issue.

The bank either acted on a written direct debit mandate (with the mother's account number on it) or else a telephone instruction (which stated the mother's account number). It's unlikely they acted on a signed blank mandate and decided to insert number themselves.

If it's an unauthorised transaction then the mother will be refunded quickly. They're going to need some time to retrieve forms and records. In the meantime the OP hasn't suffered any financial loss or inconvenience. One could argue that if the OP hasn't paid her credit card bill in five years then she should have an equivalent sum saved or lying untouched i.e. she wouldn't need "time to pay".

Probably won't be the case. If the bank is at fault then the OP will probably be given a loan to repay the sum outstanding.

Slutmonkey57b

musing wrote: »

well called national consumer agency and they say of course the bank is liable to cover her.. no mix up she has no cc at all.. there was some link thing that banks used between banks and wrong bank details were used

So... your mother has No credit card of her own... but paid a credit card bill for 5 years?

Household bills that could be run up: heating, esb, phone, tv, internet, bins, credit card, loan, mortgage/rent.... I'm struggling to see how you could have more than those, and that amount of direct debits is perfectly easy to keep on top of.

"there was some link thing that banks used between banks and wrong bank details were used" - what does this even mean?

jimmycrackcorm

I'm amused by the thread title that the bank has made an insane mistake when clearly the op hasn't noticed her payments being mysteriously on her behalf. Surely that is the insane part...

Tayla

ILikeFriday wrote: »

If I was paying some randomers credit card for five years, I would expect an extremely apologetic bank regardless of the fact that I hadn't checked my statement. They should do their job properly, without me policing them.

I wouldn't consider checking bank statements periodically to be policing the bank.